Submission

I know, I know, I promised to post about the Justice of God and I will...eventually...I think...but I keep getting sidetracked.
I was thinking yesterday about how submission has become a bad word in our society. As Americans we are taught that we are to be free and independent, which all too often translates to arrogant and selfish. However the idea that we are supposed to submit ourselves to the authority of another is...distasteful, to say the least. However submission is a very important teaching in scripture. We are to submit to the government (Rom. 14 and Titus 3), we are to submit to one another (Eph. 5), and women are to submit to their husband (also Eph. 5, and 1 Peter). Most importantly we are to submit to Christ, this is taught continually throughout the New Testament. The word most commonly translated submit (or be subject to) holds the meaning of submitting to one of greater authority (the exception to this is where Christians are commanded to submit to one another where a different word is used that holds the idea of willingly submitting to one of equal or lower authority).
The same word is used of slaves when they are commanded to submit to their masters. It is also clearly taught that we are the slaves of Christ. However the meaning here is not commonly understood in American society. When we think of slavery we think of black slavery in early America, which was a horrible thing. However this scriptural idea hearkens back to the idea of the Bond Slave in the Pentatuech. In Hebrew slavery slaves were released at certain intervals (every seven years I believe), however if a slave trusted and loved his master he could chose to continue his slavery. To do this he would place his right ear on the door post and allow his master to pierce it with an awl. This meant that he was willingly entering into a lifelong slavery to his master. This is the relationship that the New Testament draws on when it speaks of the Christians submission to Christ and (in my opinion) the wives submission to the husband.
The slave (or Christian) trusts his/her master (Christ) so much that they willingly give up their freedom in order to be the slave of his/her master. The term speaks of a total submission to the will of another. As Christians we are to be totally and completely submissive to the will of God in every way, a difficult task to accomplish, but what is required of us.
In marriage women are to be totally submitted to the will of their husbands (am I gonna get it for saying that), and husbands are to put the needs of their wives above their own. Anyone who is married needs to read all of Eph. 5 22 to the end of the chapter. Take it apart and look at what it actually requires. The wife is to submit herself to a man who is to ALWAYS act in her best interest (not best interest does not mean what she wants, but instead what she needs) as a picture of the relationship between the Christian and Christ. And the husband is to always act in the best interests of his wife, as a picture of Christ's sacrifice to the church. The submission that scripture teaches is not a negative thing, instead it is a beautiful willingness to give all that one is to another whom one trusts completely.